l82 



HARDWICKK S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



season : the bees would get no honey ; and, if the 

 bees were very scarce, the flowers would not be 

 fertilised ; whereas, if several species of bees are 

 adapted to each specialised flower, and several 

 species of flowers to each long-tongued bee, the 

 flowers are pretty certain to be visited, and the bees 

 can usually gather honey at their ease. 



It may seem somewhat presumptuous in me to 

 criticise Mr. Robertson's emphatic testimony as to 

 bees not preferring blue, since he has had such 

 extensive opportunities of observing the habits of 

 hive-bees, and I have had very few ; but I must say 

 that the conditions he describes strike me as hardly 

 offering a fair test as to the preference of bees for 

 special colours. The bees of such an apiary have to 

 collect a large amount of honey in a short time, a far 

 Jarger amount in a far shorter time than is the case 

 with wild bees. They are quite intelligent enough to 

 know that when large quantities of good honey- 

 secreting flowers are in bloom in the immediate 

 neighbourhood, they can get more honey in less time 

 from these, than by following out what the theory 

 supposes to be their natural tastes. Not only would 

 this be the case with regard to the half-acre of good 

 honey-producers cultivated by Mr. Robertson, but 

 also with regard to the blossoms of fruit-trees, limes, 

 and heath, which, while they last, carry, as it were, 

 all before them. The conditions will thus be seen to 

 be quite different to the normal ones of ordinary 

 wild bees. Has Mr. Robertson enjoyed such exten- 

 sive opportunities of observing the habits of these 

 latter in visiting flowers ? Here I may allude to Sir 

 John Lubbock's experiments with hive-bees, where 

 there was no question of collecting large quantities of 

 honey in a short space of time, and their preferences 

 for certain colours inherited from wild ancestors were 

 consequently able to have free jjlay. The results were 

 most markedly in favour of blue. I need not trouble 

 your readers by transcribing Sir John's account of the 

 experiments, which will be found in "Ants, Bees, 

 and "Wasps " (Int. Sci. Series), pp. 303-307. 



Pausing to notice that it is not Midler, but Mr. 

 Grant Allen who says, "Bees show a marked taste 

 for blue, because blue is the colour of the most 

 advanced flowers," I pass on to Mr. Robertson's 

 question, " What grounds have we for assuming that 

 of long and short-tongued insects the former produced 

 a greater number of intelligent individuals than did 

 the latter?" 



The answer is simple. The insects that became 

 long-tongued were also increasing in perfection in 

 •other respects : they were advancing in the scale of 

 organic life, and leaving their short-tongued brethren 

 behind them, and increase of intelligence was part of 

 the general advance. If it be asked what authority 

 I have for these statements, I must refer to those who 

 have made the evolutionary history of insects their 

 study. Among other works, I may mention Lubbock's 

 *' Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects," and several 



German treatises by Hermann Miiller. I may be 

 allowed, however, to quote a passage from the "Fer- 

 tilisation of Flowers," which shows very clearly the 

 facts mentioned above : — " Another class of facts 

 shows clearly that those insects whose bodily organi- 

 sation is least adapted for a floral diet, are also least 

 ingenious and skilful in seeking and obtaining their 

 food ; so that in anthophilous insects intelligence 

 seems to ViAvzxvce: pari passu with structural adaptation. 

 This statement is fully proved by the insect lists given 

 in the sequel. The following examples may serve to 

 illustrate the point at present. Coccinella septevi- 

 punctata, which is not adapted at all for a floral diet, 

 behaves so awkwardly on flowers of Erodiuvi 

 cicutarium that it generally loses its hold, and often 

 falls to the ground ; and many attempts fail to make 

 it more skilful. Sarcophaga carnaria seeks honey 

 diligently on flowers of Polygonum bistorta, but it 

 usually misses its aim in trying to insert its proboscis 

 into the flowers ; Andrena albicans at iirst is equally 

 awkward, but gradually becomes more skilful and 

 learns to insert its proboscis with greater accuracy. 

 The hive-bee never fails in any case to insert its 

 proboscis accurately." 



With regard to Mr. Robertson's argument against 

 the theory of "perpetuation of certain intense colours," 

 it must be remembered that the colours were not 

 necessarily originally " intense," and did not probably 

 exhibit that extreme variety, owing to which we now 

 find it difficult to keep strains pure. I am utterly at 

 a loss to understand the distinction which Mr. 

 Robertson draws between "accidental" and "de- 

 signed " adaptations of plants to insects, and insects 

 to plants. 



Mr. Robertson says that "to insects can in no sense 

 be due the often rich colours " of flowers secreting no 

 honey, and that " they are not now visited by insects." 

 Surely Mr. Robertson is aware of the fact that 

 insects visit numbers of flowers solely for the sake of 

 the pollen. 



I fail to see any "strange commingling of the modi- 

 fication and development of the colours of flowers " 

 in the discussion ; and why may we not use the word 

 "development" to express chemical development? 

 Why substitute the meaningless word "creation"? 

 Chemical development of colouring pigments is not 

 entirely a fortuitous process, though the laws that 

 govern the successive appearance of the colouring 

 pigments of evolving flowers are not understood. 

 When we have a reasonable theory to account for 

 this, it will throw new light on the insect selection 

 hypothesis. 



Who are the " modern theorists " ? If Mr. Grant 

 Allen and Hermann Miiller are meant, to what con- 

 clusions beyond their intentions have their " disciples " 

 pushed their theories ? I can think of none. 



In conclusion, I would advise Mr. Robertson, and 

 indeed all interested in this deeply interesting subject, 

 to read Hermann Mliller's " Fertilisation of Flowers," 



